The 2013 boycott by Unitech students should have alerted the O’Neill government that time was of the essence in resolving the impasse at Unitech and preventing further disruption. Judge Mark Sevua submitted the completed report to government in May. After a delay of about a month, Acting HERST Minister Don Polye submitted the Sevua report to NEC for endorsement. Further delay of two months passé before the NEC finally got around to endorsing the report. A further 6 months passed by without any signs from OHE of progress in implementing the report, nor of taking legal action to make it possible to implement the report. A recent letter from OHE described in a pngblogs article by another author indicated that an OHE committee itself recommended specific steps to get the ball rolling. These steps were then ignored, both by the OHE Director General as well as by HERST Minister Arore.

Submission of the Sevua report was followed by months of unexcusable delay in implementing its recommendations. Dr David Kavanamur, a close friend of former VC Misty Baloiloi, is clearly involved as part of a conspiracy to create this paralysis as well as to block Dr Schram from coming back to Unitech.

If Unitech’s students had not taken drastic action, Kavanamur and his endless circus of delays would have persisted until Dr Schram gave up and gone back to the Netherlands, his home country. Both the government and the Unitech administration itself, including its Council, showed a complete paralysis in being able to deal with the situation but it is now clear that much of this paralysis was intentional.

In a democracy, government would have come public with the reasons for the delay. PNG is not a functioning democracy and therefore the OHE coverup, facilitated by the Prime Minister, occurred and was allowed by the public.

The timeline and submission letter included in the attached document clearly establishes that the NEC already approved that the recommendations of the Sevua report be implemented. For Peter O’Neill to now say again that the Sevua report must be considered by NEC is essentially a lie. It is part of a continuing series of delay tactics cause by a conspiracy of: PM Peter O’Neill, former VC Misty Baloiloi (advisor in PM department), OHE Director David Kavanamur, and former HERST Minister David Arore.

The above people, without exception, are almost certainly guilty of obstruction of justice. Minister Delilah Gore is being manipulated by OHE Director David Kavanamur and is not herself part of the conspiracy, at least not yet.

The attached section of the Sevua report are the recommendations. Many of these are administrative and will not make sense without the context of the rest of the report, but they are presented here as the first step to unlocking the conspiracy that Unitech students are now forcing out into the open.

The following are highlights of the recommendations that make it clear that Judge Sevua and his team were starting to become very clear concerning the enablers of the government conspiracy, i.e., those within the Unitech council or former Unitech administration:

1. “That the Philipp Stagg led Council be terminated and a new Council appointed on skill based consideration following amendments to the Act and relevant Statutes.”

Remarks: This recommendation may have been purposely saboutaged by OHE and others within government by appointing the new Council WITHOUT making any amendments to the Unitech Act. That is why the government is now paralysed by court orders

2. “That a major financial investigation must be conducted immediately by the Police Fraud Squad to determine the extent of the use of all UNITECH’s finances referred to in this Report, including the use of the PIP Funds, the awarding of contracts without complying with proper and legal prcumbent processes under the PIP Guidelines, Tender Procedures, Finance instructions Manual and any other legal requirements”.

Remarks: All this must be in place before Albert Schram takes power again as Unitech Vice Chancellor. The financial investigation must go well back in time, to include both the 2007 and 2012 elections where there are serious allegations of stealing of funds used for the campaign of Misty Baloiloi and former Registrar Alan Sako.

3. “That such investigations must include the degree of involvement and the legal basis of verbal approvals granted by Philip Stagg and Dr Misty Baloiloi in relation to the contracts for the accommodation of the students at Okari campus, Kuima Security Services, KEC Electrical, Niugini Builders and other questionable transactions we have referred to in this report”.

Remarks: The investigation must also include money issues related to Baloilois’ and Sako’s 2007 and 2012 campaigns.

4. “That Dr Cletus Gonduan be investigated to ascertain if the allegations against him of having a private company sub-contract to NGB on the K9 million contract to construct the 100 room male students dormitory”.

Remarks: Gonduan used the argument of “localisation” to fight Dr Schram and it is becoming clearer that this was a pretense. Added to Dr Gonduan should be an investigation of Prof Y. Telue and Prof S. Akotai to determine if there were underlying, more sinister motives to why they were part of the Philip Stagg-led rebellion against VC Albert Schram.

5. “That Alan Sako be further investigated by police Fraud Squad and a Warrant be immediately issued to Fraud Squad to obtain his personal File for the purpose of an investigation to ascertain if criminal charges against him are warranted” Remarks: One specific allegation is that Sako got a cash advance to pay for his 2007 campaign and never repaid it. There are also allegations related to the 2012 campaign.

6. “That Recommendations 11 should include the investigation into the basis for making irregular payments of Long service Leave Pay and Recreational Leave Pay to Dr Baloiloi and Alan Sako”.

7. “That the council, the management and staff of the registry office as well as bursary be subject to further investigation into their involvement and lack of supervision in the areas of financial accountability”.

8. “UNITECH needs to employ a new bursar and most preferably an expatriate to clean up the mess”.

Remarks: The sad fact is that middle aged nationals in many areas of Unitech teaching and administration have badly fallen short in being able to perform at the levels of equivalent expatriates. The “wantok system” pressure is a major culprit that pressures descent into corruption. Universities are the premiere educational institution and guiding light of the entire society, well above the government itself. This is why they have traditionally been given a high level of independence.

The Sevua report is now out-dated. It is clear that OHE director David Kavanamur and Former VC Misty Baloiloi are complicit in the obstruction of justice that led to Dr Schram being banned from entering PNG or resuming his job.

Unitech Students have become the last hope of forcing reform of the university system. I would encourage them strongly to not end their boycott until the NEC authorises an immediate commission of inquiry that specifically looks into the Unitech Coverup leading up to the blocking of Dr Schram’s entry into PNG in December 2013 and covers the HERST Ministry all the way up to the Prime Minister.

About Me

Committed to making a real difference by leading positive change in higher education.

For over 10 years
from 1993-2004, I worked in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
in the field of environmental and sustainable development policy, and
environmental economics. My research interest is the role of technology and private business in the development of countries.

As an academic I have 17 peer review publications in various humanities and social sciences disciplines, supervised 5 PhD students and 18 Masters thesis.

As a consultant I worked as head of the environmental
studies department of SIDE, S.A. a consultancy company with
office in Mexico City, San José, and Lima I worked closely together
with many government organizations and private companies. For the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute I carried out two regional studies on sustainable development policies. For the European Commission I wrote one report on corporate social responsiblity, and one on the green economy for the European External Action Service.

Currently, I am Vice-Chancellor or Chief Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea University of Papua New Guinea, in Lae.